I think it made some sense when originally introduced as a vague concept of something akin to a civilizational singularity - it's a fairly old sci-fi idea anywa

I think it made some sense when originally introduced as a vague concept of something akin to a civilizational singularity - it's a fairly old sci-fi idea anyway; Brin had something similar in the Uplift series for example. But what was ultimately described in e.g. the Hydrogen Sonata was really weird and hard to mesh with everything else in the series.